The French Revolution was one of the most deadly times in all of history. Charles Dickens’ most famous novel A Tale of Two Cities captures this massive period of death and destruction perfectly. War can be a messy, unstable beast, destroying many relationships in its path. Revenge is one of the quickest ways to do this, which is why Dickens uses it as a major theme throughout the novel. Dickens does a great job showing how revenge shows no mercy. He incorporates the theme of revenge into several characters and story arcs including the storming of the Bastille, the execution of Old Foulon, and the character of Madame Defarge.
The storming of the Bastille not only started the French Revolution, but it also started a fiery passion for revenge that quickly spread throughout the French people. The revolutionaries are gathered outside the Defarges’ wine shop, preparing to fight for their pride, dignity, but most of all, for revenge. Dickens refers to the revolutionaries as a “sea of people”, eager to flood the Bastille. He writes, “With a roar that sounded as if all the breath in France had been shaped into the detested world, the living sea rose, wave on wave, depth on depth, and overflowed the city to that point” (Dickens 165). The Bastille is a symbol of all the injustices the peasants suffered: poverty, hunger, and no one to turn to for help. However, the capturing of the Bastille quickly lights a spark that could never go out. The peasants want the royals to suffer for the utter hypocrisy and indifference shown toward them. They would never settle, and they want every royal dead. Eventually, the people of the Bastille surrendered, the peasants overwhelmingly defeating the guards there. As Dickens describes it, “Suddenly the seas...
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...on,’ said Madame” (263).
She wants total extermination of an entire race. This desire shows how revenge stored up for all these years is the most deadly kind of all. Madame Defarge’s desire to kill innocent people solely for revenge shows how powerful revenge can truly be.
The storming of Bastille, the execution of old Foulon, and Madame Defarge’s cruel passion show how Dickens masterfully uses the theme of revenge in A Tale of Two Cities. The storming of the Bastille lights the spark of revenge within the French peasants. The killing of Old Foulon shows the fire in its terrible entirety. Madame Defarge’s character shows how the fire of an individual can be so bright and deadly. The theme of revenge is lit like a great fire throughout Dickens’ brilliant novel A Tale of Two Cities.
Works Cited
Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Mineola: Dover, 1999. Print.
Madame Defarge tries to kill and hurt everyone who opposes her in Tale of Two Cities. Her only hobby is knitting, and she knits as a way to show anger and bring fear to her enemies. She knits a list of people who die in the revolution. The essay shows how Madame Defarge has motives for her killings, her allies, and if the behavior is justified.
Madame Defarge was taking out her anger on the whole family, which she thought had killed her sister. So Madame Defarge was going after all of the Marquis, no matter if they had anything to do with the murder or not.
She plays the Force of Evil, as she plots against Darnay and those around him, despite occasional disapprovals from her husband. “‘One must stop somewhere. After all, the question is still where?’ ‘At extermination,’ said Madame’” (263). She’s described as a, “ruthless woman, now taking her way along the streets. Of a strong and fearless character, of shrewd sense and readiness, of great determination… but, imbued from her childhood with a brooding sense of wrong, and an inveterate hatred of a class, opportunity had developed her into a tigress” (281). Madame Defarge did what she thought was right in order to try and compensate for the damage done during her childhood, “that sister of the mortally wounded boy upon the ground was my sister, that husband was my sisters husband, that unborn child was their child, that brother was my brother, that father was my father”
To support a major theme of this novel, scarecrows and birds of fine song and feather, wine and knitting, all represent the theme of man’s inhumanity toward his fellow man. The Revolution was a tragically devastating time full of senseless and meaningless violence, deception of neighbors as well as treason towards the government, and blissful ignorance of the surroundings. Many scenes and dialogue from this novel point out what contributed to make the revolution a period of intense political destruction. In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens includes many themes pertaining to the French Revolution and the moralities and immoralities that goes with violence, betrayal, and ignorance, by using many different types of symbolism.
The French Revolution was a time of chaos and uprising in France during the mid-19th century that divided the French people. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is a novel that is set during this tumultuous time in history. During this period of time, the people of France made many sacrifices. Sacrifice is a common theme that is developed throughout this novel. One reason many people make sacrifices is for love, and throughout the novel this theme is developed through the characters Miss Pross, Doctor Alexandre Manette, and Sydney Carton.
Dickens uses wine to represent the blood to be spilled in the war as well as to show how divided the classes are. Through the depiction of the poor rejoicing over spilled drops of wine against the backdrop of the aristocratic town of St. Antoine, Dickens is able to evince the polarity of rich and poor existent at the time. Dickens describes the scene of the broken wine cask, “When the wine was gone, and the places where it had been most abundant were raked into a gridiron-pattern by fingers, these demonstrations ceased, as suddenly as they had broken out. The man who had left his saw sticking in the firewood he was cutting, set it in motion again; the woman who had left on a door-step the little pot of hot ashes, at which she had been trying to soften the pain in her own starved fingers and toes, or in those of her child, returned to it; emerged into the winter light from cellars, moved away to descend again; and a gloom gather on the scene that appeared more natural to it than sunshine” (Dickens 21). The townspeople run to collect, drink, and play in the wine. The aristocrats are living lavishly while these townspeople are celebrating over a few drops of wine. He further describes how a townsperson, Gas...
Revenge is best served cold or so says the well-known expression. This idea of revenge that they seek is usually to restore a balance and take an “eye for an eye” as the bible says. Revenge, if by chance everyone were in Plato’s perfect utopia, would be in a perfect form, where justice and revenge would be one, and the coined phrase an “eye for an eye” would be taken literally. By taking an eye for and eye, and punishing those who did wrong equally as they did wrong, there is justice. However, this revenge sometimes goes to far and is consequently not justice. This notion of Revenge and justice is often in literature, one of the better-known being the novel The Count of Monte Cristo, written by Alexandre Dumas. However, literature is not the only time that revenge and justice is discussed in. Works and Rules and real-life events that took place like the Bible, Hammurabi’s code, Twelve Tables, and others each have something different about the topic. More religious texts seem to forbid violence, while laws, such as the Hammurabi’s code, recommend revenge, but equal revenge. By judging from literature, it can be concluded that most authors have different opinions on the matter at hand, and revenge is sometimes justice, but usually not, and tends to lead to violence that was not intended.
...to revenge. She turned into this cold killer to kill the entire Evermonde family for what they had done to her family. She uses her power in the revolution to take revenge on the Evermonde family. Madame Defarge loses her true self and becomes someone who disregards the lives of people include hers. Dickens’s theme of how history repeats itself appears again when Madame Defarge kills innocent people similar to what the Marquis of Evermonde did.
The blue flies, Madame Defarge’s knitting, and the sea are just three of Dickens’ many symbols that develop the theme of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man in A Tale of Two Cities. Although Revolutions are not particularly humane in themselves, the individual characters and the majority of the peasantry in this book took inhumane to its extreme. Because the revolutionaries follow their ruthless leader, Madame Defarge, they do not question the humanity or morality of the massacre of the aristocracy. In a Revolution meant to free peasants, peasants should be last on the list of those being murdered, and this injustice should be realized. In the French Revolution as well as A Tale of Two Cities, the oppressed become the oppressors and the main cause behind the revolution is lost.
During a time of conflicting warfare, a person’s social position and temperament play a significant role in the ideals of society. A Tale of Two Cities manifests society’s response to the French Revolution. Times like this result in two options, either to keep moving on with life, or give in to the vengeance. Charles Dickens portrays both sides of humanity through his characterization. Madame Defarge is the most prominent character that represents the inability to resist violence during the Revolution. In Madame Defarge’s quest for revenge, her continuous knitting and dominance prompt her character development, establishing her character as the antagonist.
The French Revolution was a period of time when the entirety of France went against the monarchy. King Louis XVI was taken down by the people at this time. The change brought along a replacement for the monarchial society (French Revolution 2). The now formed republic run by the people is now forever an example of what can happen to those whom live in places run by kings and queens, and that those who wish to escape tyranny can always make a change. The tyranny that was present brought along the eventual execution of the two royalties (2). This is evident in Dickens’s novel, in which the story centers around the revolution. Madame Defarge exists as on...
Throughout the book, Dickens portrays his objectivity between the classes through a series of graphic descriptions. For example, the horrid events that occur when the Marquis murders the child is a time when Dickens most definitely favors the rebels. Dickens’s attitude when Jacques kills the Marquis is that justice has been supplied. There is a definite tone of approval in his voice after these actions. On the other hand, Dickens’s attitude towards the mutineers is not always one of endorsement. When the activists nearly kill Gabelle and burn the Chateau, Dickens’s attitude changes from one of approval to one of disbelief. His disposition is almost one of sorrow for all the beauty being carelessly destroyed. As the reader can see, Dickens’s opinion varies greatly in accordance to the portion of the story the person is reading.
In the book “The Loaded Dice”, two stories “Fingers” and “Mrs Bixby and the Colonels Coat” have demonstrated the act of revenge very well. The story “Fingers” was a tale of L...
The French Revolution was a time of unjustified bloodshed among the French nobility and the peasants. Lasting from 1787 to 1799, peasants revolted against the nobility because of unfair treatment and oppression. In A Tale of Two Cities, English writer, Charles Dickens, tells a story of the desperate lives the peasants live and their bloody rebellion against the nobles. In contrast, Dicken's novel also narrates the excessive lives of the aristocracy and their obliviousness to the coming change. The novel has many themes, however among those the most important is the theme of sacrifice. Many characters sacrifice things but the following are the major selfless acts done in the name of love. Charles Darnay’s choice to give up his family’s wealth and nobility, Mrs. Pross’ sacrifice of her ability to hear, and Sydney Carton’s sacrifice of life all support Dicken’s theme of sacrifice for people whom they love in the novel.
During the French Revolution, there were many controversies between the peasants and the aristocracy. In A Tale Of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, most of the peasants are revolutionaries fighting against their nobility. Dickens’ use of imagery throughout the novel tries to sway the reader’s opinions about the peasants. Charles Dickens depicts the French Revolution well with the images of the novel as well as the tone he uses. Throughout the novel, Dickens illustrates through his imagery how the peasants change from poor, secretive, and then on to vicious.